Garden strawberry - a beautiful, tasty and healthy berry, it asks in your mouth! I would like not only to get enough of it in the summer, but also to grow it in such quantity that it can be prepared for the winter. And drink sweet strawberry compote, enjoy fragrant jam with a hot tea and dream about the summer sun. How to get a decent crop, which is enough for everything? This is our article!
Choose a place
If you ask experienced gardeners how to prepare a bed for strawberries, first of all you will be asked to pay attention to the location of the garden plot. Strawberry is a light-loving berry, grows poorly in the shade, ripens for a long time, and yields a weak crop. Therefore, it should be allocated a flat, open, sunny place, where the shadow from buildings, trees, shrubs does not fall. It is advisable that the site is located in the southwestern part of the site, where it is warm but not hot. The second condition for how to prepare the bed for strawberries correctly is not to place the plots on the top of the slope or in the lowland. In the first case, the soil will dry up all the time, the rosettes of berries will wither, the plant will hurt. And in the lowlands, excess moisture and cold air accumulate, which also negatively affects the harvest. But this is far from all! The next principle, how to prepare a bed for strawberries, is to choose a place so that it is not blown by the winds and that the snow in the winter lies long enough. This will allow you to moisten and nourish the soil properly, as well as protect the seedlings from freezing. And, finally, there is still such an important nuance in how to prepare a bed for strawberries: the planting site must be changed every 3-4 years, because during the cultivation of the culture, bacteria accumulate in the soil of various diseases that affect strawberry bushes.
Autumn is a season of pain
You can plant the plant both in spring and autumn. The second option is preferable if you want to harvest the crop in the summer. And spring planting will require a longer wait. The question is ripening: how to prepare a bed for strawberries in the fall? This can and should be done before the first frost, in late September or early October. Soil moisture is good, and fertilizers (and they will be required) are absorbed into the soil well. It’s good if you take for planting that part of the garden where you grew garlic, onions, carrots or peas, parsley or dill. The pungent smell of some plants and the low consumption of minerals from the ground by others, on the one hand, dispersed the majority of pests and killed harmful soil microorganisms, and on the other, did not hit the fertility of the earth too much. And strawberries will feel comfortable here! Dig the soil thoroughly, throw away pebbles and other debris, and deal with weeds, especially their roots. If the groundwater is close to the surface, the height of the beds should be at least 35 cm. When they are deep, dig in the beds 10 centimeters upwards, not more. The width of each is the most optimal - within 100 cm. The digging depth is at least 35 cm. Be careful and collect possible larvae of beetles and other pests with garbage. Be sure to break the ground with a pitchfork and push it so that there are no large blocks. Smooth the area with a rake and sprinkle with ordinary sand so that snails and slugs do not crawl onto the fresh digging. Leave the beds in this form for several days. Then apply manure, as well as lime, with a high content of calcium. By the way, they can be used precisely in the fall and in no case in the spring, when seedlings are planted. Fertilize the earth, dig up again so that the additives are evenly distributed, and wait for the spring!
Spring work
Spring is red - and the garden again requires our care. Here's how to prepare a bed for strawberries in the spring: loosen the ground with a pitchfork, moisten generously, distributing one ten-liter bucket per meter. To prevent the appearance of pests and to avoid infection of seedlings with fungal diseases, before planting, treat the soil with a solution of copper sulfate (2 tablespoons of powder per 10 liters of ordinary water). You can fertilize with bird manure and compost. And wood ash is very desirable. Sprinkle the beds with chopped straw or sawdust, and it would be nice to add
nitrogen fertilizers. Plants should be planted in mid-June, then they will be viable, strong, healthy.
We work in the summer
If you have planned a plant transplant to do in the summer, then, of course, it is important to know how to prepare a bed for strawberries in August. This must be done 2 weeks before the transfer of the culture to the ground. The fact that the earth should be carefully dug up, you already know. Be sure to add rotted manure. From foliar top dressing, manganese, molybdenum and zinc supplements will be very useful. Thanks to this measure, your strawberries will be able to more actively resist disease. Make a distance between rows of 80 centimeters. Wells for seedlings should be 30 cm apart. Sufficient depth is 20 centimeters. Fine straw is useful for mulching and preserving moisture.